[Oer-community] A reflection

[Lentell, Helen M.]

Dear Colleagues

Interesting conversation. But I am reminded of a comment made some years ago in the distance learning community, it was this: if technology is the answer what is the question? Following on from this:  if mapping OERs is the answer what is the educational problem we are trying to address?  

Best wishes 

Helen

Helen Lentell
University Fellow in Distance Learning
Centre for Labour Market Studies
Ken Edwards Building
University Road
Leicester LE1 7RH
UK

helen.lentell at le.ac.uk
________________________________________
From: oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca [oer-community-bounces at athabascau.ca] On Behalf Of Susan D'Antoni [susandantoni at gmail.com]
Sent: 14 November 2012 17:10
To: oer-community at athabascau.ca
Subject: [Oer-community] A reflection

Dear Colleagues,

This has been a most energetic start to our discussion of mapping the landscape of OER initiatives.  To see this OER community spring into action again is such a pleasure after being in contact with many of you since 2005.

And like our colleague, Saul Fisher, I too was at the 2002 meeting at UNESCO when the Term Open Educational Resources came into being and like him “find the progress in OER over the decade "beyond my wildest hopes".

Maps are "powerful representations for creating, representing and visualizing open knowledge” (Ale Okada) but no, there has been no decision taken anywhere that we will create an OER world map (Sandra Schosn concern).

In the discussion so far, there have been a number of points made about the potential benefits of a visual map of the OER landscape – such as –

*   serve as a gateway
*   make more initiatives visible beyond the well-known ones
*   identify initiatives operating in different languages
*   help find OER
*   identify the OER community
*   foster new collaboration and cooperative efforts

But there have been some concerns expressed – such as –

*   it is a big task so it needs to be a simple map
*   it needs to be self sustaining
*   It is tempting to collect too much data
*   it needs to be carefully structured and organized
*   we need to define or classify initiatives

The point about sustainability and the need to keep it simple are good points to bear in mind.  I had the privilege (because I was not trained as a statistician) of working at Statistics Canada, a fine statistical agency.  I learned a lot, but one thing that stuck with me was the extremely high cost of collecting information and the importance of “essential” data, not "nice to have".  It truly is a temptation to want more and morre information.  But if we aimed to describe the global OER landscape, then the amount of information to begin building an OER world map might best be what we consider absolutely essential.  Discipline!

Let’s keep the two lists of pros and concerns in mind as we continue this train of discussion.  Then let's move on to considering what essential information might be for an initial mapping exercise.

Lovely conversation,

Susan